DrAbhay Bang
Founder Director, SEARCH
SEARCH (Society for Education, Action and Research in Community Health)
- Founder Director, SEARCHSEARCH (Society for Education, Action and Research in Community Health)
- AdvisorGovt of Maharashtra Task Force.
- +919422150966 (Mobile)
BIO
Dr. Abhay Bang, MD, MPH, D. Sc (Hon.), D. Lit (Hon.)
Founder Director, SEARCH, Gadchiroli
Maharashtra, India
Dr. Abhay Bang was brought up in Mahatma Gandhi’s ashram; He completed his medical education with three gold medals, post graduation in internal medicine and then MPH from The Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health. For the past 30 years he is the Director of the Society for Education, Action and Research in Community Health (SEARCH), which he co-founded in 1985 with his wife, Dr. Rani Bang, in a remote district, Gadchiroli, in India where they live, provide medical care and conduct research in 150 villages.
Dr Bang and his organization have conducted several path breaking studies which have shaped national and global policies. They have developed a new approach, ‘Home-based Newborn and Child Care,’ which has reduced infant mortality rate from the baseline 121 to as low as 30. This research has been selected as one of the milestone papers published in the Lancet in the past 180 years to be included in the Vintage Papers from Lancet. This approach has been replicated in ten countries, and is being scaled up nationally by the Govt. of India.
He and his organization have received nearly 60 awards, including the Mahatma Gandhi award, Maharashtra Bhushan – the highest honor of the Maharashtra state, the national award from the Indian Council of Medical Research, have been honored by Save the Children, and by the MacArthur Foundation. Abhay and Rani have been honored by TIME magazine as ‘Global Health Heroes’ in 2005, and by the WHO as the Public Health Champion.
He was member of India’s National Commission on Population, and of the National Commission on Macro-economics and Health, High Level Expert Group on Universal Health Coverage, Govt of India, and the High Level Committee on Tribal People. He is currently a member of the Central Health Council, Govt. of India, and Chairman, Expert Committee on Tribal Health, Govt. of India.
Drs Abhay and Rani Bang were recently honoured by the President of India with Padmashri.
Founder Director, SEARCH, Gadchiroli
Maharashtra, India
Dr. Abhay Bang was brought up in Mahatma Gandhi’s ashram; He completed his medical education with three gold medals, post graduation in internal medicine and then MPH from The Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health. For the past 30 years he is the Director of the Society for Education, Action and Research in Community Health (SEARCH), which he co-founded in 1985 with his wife, Dr. Rani Bang, in a remote district, Gadchiroli, in India where they live, provide medical care and conduct research in 150 villages.
Dr Bang and his organization have conducted several path breaking studies which have shaped national and global policies. They have developed a new approach, ‘Home-based Newborn and Child Care,’ which has reduced infant mortality rate from the baseline 121 to as low as 30. This research has been selected as one of the milestone papers published in the Lancet in the past 180 years to be included in the Vintage Papers from Lancet. This approach has been replicated in ten countries, and is being scaled up nationally by the Govt. of India.
He and his organization have received nearly 60 awards, including the Mahatma Gandhi award, Maharashtra Bhushan – the highest honor of the Maharashtra state, the national award from the Indian Council of Medical Research, have been honored by Save the Children, and by the MacArthur Foundation. Abhay and Rani have been honored by TIME magazine as ‘Global Health Heroes’ in 2005, and by the WHO as the Public Health Champion.
He was member of India’s National Commission on Population, and of the National Commission on Macro-economics and Health, High Level Expert Group on Universal Health Coverage, Govt of India, and the High Level Committee on Tribal People. He is currently a member of the Central Health Council, Govt. of India, and Chairman, Expert Committee on Tribal Health, Govt. of India.
Drs Abhay and Rani Bang were recently honoured by the President of India with Padmashri.
ACADEMIC POSITIONS
- Founder Director, SEARCHSEARCH (Society for Education, Action and Research in Community Health), India1985 - present
NON-ACADEMIC POSITIONS
- AdvisorGovt of Maharashtra Task Force.2021 - present
- Chairman, Expert Committee on Tribal HealthGovt of India2013 - 2018
DEGREES
- MBBS, MDNagpur University, India1977
- MPHJohns Hopkins University, Baltimore, United States1984
LANGUAGES
- EnglishCan read, write, speak, understand and peer review
- HindiCan read, write, speak and understand
- MarathiCan read, write, speak and understand
WHO REGION
- WHO South-East Asia Region
COUNTRY OF NATIONALITY
- India